Six minutes
This is the amount of time that my uber-active child will stand still, immovable, unshakeable, transfixed, and my parental vigilance gets a moment off. For this is the amount of time it takes our oven to preheat.
From wherever he is in the house, Trey is never out of earshot of the oven's initial beeps, as I press bake, then the temperature, then start. When that comes, he drops whatever he is doing and tears through the house shouting, "Gotta watch the beep! Gotta watch the beep!" And rest assured he will stand in front of the oven, still as a Buckingham Palace guard, to watch the entire countdown.
Sometimes he counts along and sometimes he seems to be in a daze. At least until the countdown goes under a minute. Then we get the commentary. "Almost time!" "We'll hear the beep in juuuuust a minute!" "Here it comes!!"
When the oven finally beeps, Trey spends about 5 seconds being overjoyed, then usually goes back to what he was doing six minutes ago.
It's an odd phenomenon, but one I embrace with open arms. It is almost sinful, the amount of small chores that can be completed in six minutes. I like those six minutes. But never in a million years would I, ahem, preheat the oven when I had nothing to bake just to have a few minutes to myself. Never. Never ever. That would just be sad.
From wherever he is in the house, Trey is never out of earshot of the oven's initial beeps, as I press bake, then the temperature, then start. When that comes, he drops whatever he is doing and tears through the house shouting, "Gotta watch the beep! Gotta watch the beep!" And rest assured he will stand in front of the oven, still as a Buckingham Palace guard, to watch the entire countdown.
Sometimes he counts along and sometimes he seems to be in a daze. At least until the countdown goes under a minute. Then we get the commentary. "Almost time!" "We'll hear the beep in juuuuust a minute!" "Here it comes!!"
When the oven finally beeps, Trey spends about 5 seconds being overjoyed, then usually goes back to what he was doing six minutes ago.
It's an odd phenomenon, but one I embrace with open arms. It is almost sinful, the amount of small chores that can be completed in six minutes. I like those six minutes. But never in a million years would I, ahem, preheat the oven when I had nothing to bake just to have a few minutes to myself. Never. Never ever. That would just be sad.
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